Main settings
The objective activity of a young child can have a developmental effect only through cooperation with adults. They are the carriers of methods of action and cultural means for a little person, as well as a source of discovering new meanings of his activity. Initially, the child performs certain manipulations on behalf of an adult and while being next to him. This confirms the joint focus of such work.
In this regard, in the child’s objective activity the following parameters of its level of development can be distinguished:
- Operating. This parameter is a direct characteristic of the actions being performed. Its indicators are such types of actions with objects as manipulative (specific and non-specific), as well as the actual object, culturally fixed ones.
- Need-motivational. This parameter indicates the level that the child has reached in his cognitive activity. Its indicators are the child’s interest in objects, his desire to examine them, as well as actions with them, emotional involvement in such activities and persistence.
- Communication with adults during objective activities. The degree of acceptance of support and help from others is an important indicator of the child’s potential capabilities.
Features of the formation of cognitive processes in preschool children
The development of cognitive processes in preschool age occurs in stages. The formation of types, functions, operations of each process of cognition first overcomes the stage of involuntariness.
Younger preschoolers learn about the world involuntarily. They pay attention, perceive and remember only what interests and attracts them.
Since a 3-4 year old child is busy with objective activities, his thinking is also directed only at objects that arouse curiosity.
The main task in the development of cognitive processes is to form the property of arbitrariness. The child must learn to control the functions of cognition and comprehend not only what attracts with its brightness or sonority. The world around us is filled with a variety of objects, phenomena, properties, events, relationships - we have to comprehend them all.
It is possible to get used to and develop in this world only under the condition of purposeful cognition using volitional efforts. This is the arbitrary nature of cognitive processes.
By the time he enters school, along with involuntary perception and attention, it is important for a preschooler to be able to voluntarily use cognitive functions. Elements of voluntariness are laid down on the basis of speech development and such properties as cognitive interest and curiosity.
Subject activity of a young child
Galina Pozigun
Subject activity of a young child
Subject activity of a young child
The basis of mental education is the formation, on the basis of acquired knowledge, of an elementary generalized idea of the properties and qualities of objects , the development and enrichment of the child’s sensory experience.
Subject activity is leading at an early age ; it determines “leads”
mental development is behind it, which is why it is called leading.
In the process of this activity, the child learns cultural, historically established ways of acting with objects .
Being the leading activity at this stage of development, objective activity determines the development of mental processes, the child’s personality, and the emergence of new forms of activity .
Subject-based activities help improve the child’s sensory experience, develop sensations, perception, attention, memory and thinking. With the help of non-specific and specific manipulations, indicative-exploratory and objective actions, the child’s increasingly deeper mastery of the objective world and the development of his intellectual potential occur. By experimenting with objects using nonspecific and specific manipulations, the child extracts a lot of information about objects, establishing connections between them. These actions demonstrate the child’s curiosity and realize his cognitive activity. (The child tries to pour sand with a shovel and does not grab it, he tries to grab the sand with his hands, which immediately gives a positive result, then he tries to pour sand with a scoop again and so many times, finally, he has learned to pour sand)
Subject activity determines the content of a child’s communication with an adult. In the course of joint substantive activity, new means of communication are developed, the main of which is speech. At an early age, speech is used by a child primarily as a means of business contacts with adults. Outwardly, this is expressed in the child’s frequent appeals to an adult: questioning glances, requests for help, the words “How?” So?. So!"
)
Within the framework of objective activity, a new type of procedural game is formed. The assimilation of socially developed ways of acting with objects is included in the system of human relations. These relationships begin to be recognized by the child in the course of real subject- practical interaction with an adult. During assimilation, actions are gradually “separated”
from
the objects with the help of which they were learned. These actions are transferred to other objects similar to them. This is how generalized actions are formed (feeds the doll with a spoon-stick, gives water from a mug-cube).
On their basis, it becomes possible to compare one’s own actions with the actions of adults. Gradually, first with the help of adults, and then more and more independently, the child begins to reproduce elements of interaction with others in actions with story toys.
Subject-based activities contribute to the development of the child’s personality. Leading activity mediates the attitude of a young child to the objective and social world around him , as well as to himself. Subject-based activities contribute to the development of the child’s cognitive interests, his independence, curiosity, and focus.
Object activity is the content and sequence of information children receive about objects, the processing of this information, the activation of the child’s existing knowledge and mental actions.
the substantive content of children's mental activity is important for mental education .
Introducing children into the objective world involves the formation of ideas about the object as such and as a creation of human thought and the result of labor activity .
In this area of development, several directions can be distinguished, each of which involves the formulation of special pedagogical tasks and the use of appropriate methods for their implementation. First of all, this is the development of culturally normalized, practical and instrumental actions. The teacher must help the child learn how to properly use various household items (eating with a spoon, drinking from a cup, fastening buttons, using a comb, toys specially designed for mastering instrumental actions (spatula, hammer, etc.)
To solve the assigned tasks, the teacher must organize a developmental
subject environment , establish joint activities with the child , and create conditions for his independent actions with objects . many objective actions by becoming familiar with household objects in the process of eating, going to the toilet, changing clothes, and taking part in the everyday activities of adults .
Usually kids willingly help set the table and put away toys. The child masters instrumental actions not only in everyday life, but also in the process of individual and joint games and activities with the teacher. (trying to start the car with a key, hammering pegs into the ground with a hank, feeding a bear with a spoon) To familiarize children with the objects of the surrounding world and master object-based actions, the group should contain a variety of household objects , toys that imitate them, and toys specifically designed for the development of various object-based actions . A rich and varied subject environment stimulates the baby to various actions, contributes to the enrichment of his sensory experience, and the development of thinking. Items , toys, materials should be in the public domain, if possible sorted into sets and placed so that children have a desire to act with them. Objects and toys should contribute to the development of the senses and the formation of a variety of skills, and have different sizes, textures, and colors. The teacher must maintain interest in toys and objects and teach children to explore them.
I propose the following sequence of examination of objects .
1. Perception of the holistic appearance of objects: examine the object , hold it in your hands, feel it, act with it, name the object - this is a truck “How did you know that this is a truck? That he has?"
.
2. Isolation of the main parts of the examined object and determination of their properties (shape, size)
“Where are the wheels of the truck, where is the body, the cab?
What wheels? What about the cabin and body?” “The dress has pockets, buttons, a collar”
3. Determination of the spatial relationships of the parts relative to each other above, below the cabin above, body below. We build a house from cubes and bricks, a cube below, a brick above.
4. Repeated holistic perception of the subject .
To do this, it is important to teach children to examine (specially organized examination)
objects , grasp them with both hands, trace a finger around one or the other hand, so that the impressions received in the process of this can be used in a certain type of activity (grasps a ball, rolls it, puts cubes in a box, takes out objects from the bag, determines their shape , color, the teacher acts with the child’s , together with him, the main method that the teacher uses is showing).
In the process of examining and examining children, it is necessary to teach and highlight the properties and qualities of objects (shape, structure, size, proportions, color, position in space, materials from which they are made. However, this should not be done immediately, but gradually expanding the range of cognizable objects. Then the images of perception formed on the basis of actions will become more complete (the mass of an object depends on its size and the characteristics of the material, a round toy can be rolled, a non-round one stands still, only toys that have a through hole can be strung).
Therefore, in the learning process, application is used, inserting objects , i.e., visual comparison based on a certain feature . This forces children to carefully look, listen, focus on the desired property, select and group objects as required by the conditions and rules of the game (for example, sort colorful balls and cubes, focusing on color and shape; disassemble and assemble insert toys: in a large object can be inserted into a smaller one, when assembling a nesting doll, select halves of the same size - first assemble the small one, then insert it into the larger one).
Based on the similarity of the identified properties of different objects , you can begin to teach children to liken some objects to others (like a ball, like a cucumber, like a cube; fluffy, like a kitten, prickly, like a hedgehog). The teacher sets a task for the child, creating a problematic situation, and invites the child to solve this problem himself. He offers to feed the doll , but instead of a spoon there is a stick, what should I do? How to proceed? At the same time, it is important to develop the ability to correlate objects perceived for the first time with those that they have known before.
This work should be carried out systematically, consistently, and be included in all stages of children’s life . Regular moments - washing, dressing, breakfast, lunch, etc., games - didactic, active, role-playing, etc., classes, work , walks and excursions. In short, familiarity with the subject permeates the entire educational process.
Direct acquaintance with the subject should be lively and interesting, evoking a positive response from children. (Dryness, excessive didacticism, formalism cause boredom and impair memorization)
Process of perception (looking, listening)
must be accompanied by a word
(ball round, smooth, red)
.
Children, perceiving objects , simultaneously remember verbal designations of their qualities.
Showing independence and the desire to share your impressions should be encouraged. An adult should respond to the child’s request for help, join in his play, and help overcome difficulties. The teacher’s prompts should not be directive in nature: “Take this ring.”
or
“We need to take another ring
.
It is important to give the child the opportunity to choose freedom of action.” Does this ring fit here?
I think it's too big." The child should be encouraged and praised. The mental and technical development of a child at an early age passes through object-based activity ; the cognitive capabilities of a 2-3 year old child are still small and imperfect, therefore many tasks of familiarizing with the objective world are solved in the form of didactic games. A didactic game is a multifaceted , complex pedagogical phenomenon: it is a gaming method of teaching preschool children , a form of education, an independent gaming activity , and a means of comprehensive education of a child’s .
Didactic games as a gaming method of teaching are considered in two types: game-activities and didactic or autodidactic games. In the first case, the leading role belongs to the teacher, who, to increase children’s interest in the activity, uses a variety of gaming techniques, creates a gaming situation, introduces elements of competition, etc. The use of various components of gaming activity is combined with questions, instructions, explanations, and demonstration.
Autodidactic games themselves tell the child what kind of action needs to be performed in order to achieve a particular goal. These are various composite toys that require matching the sizes, shapes or colors of different parts
(curly pyramids, nesting dolls, inserts, mosaics, cut pictures)
.
So, in order to fold a pyramid, you need to take into account the ratio of the rings in size, correlate the component parts by shape in order to assemble a certain object (clown, mushroom, dog)
.
With the help of games and activities, the teacher not only conveys certain knowledge , forms ideas , but also teaches children to play. The basis for children’s games are formulated ideas about the construction of a game plot, about a variety of game actions with objects . The baby feeds, combs, and bathes the dolls himself. It is important that conditions are then created for the transfer of this knowledge and ideas into independent , creative games.
child how to play with a doll through didactic games. For these purposes we use the games “Bathing a doll”
,
“Let’s put the doll to sleep”
,
“Let’s sing a lullaby to the doll”
,
“Show the doll pictures”
,
“Let’s feed the doll”,
etc. Therefore, in the group it is necessary to have a didactic doll with a set of seasonal clothes, dolls for a subgroup of children, a trousseau, seasonal clothes, as well as baths, towels, soap (bricks, dolls should be large, medium and small
Preschoolers need to develop the ability to distinguish familiar objects and actions in pictures and name them. For example, the painting “Girl Feeding Chickens”
: What kind of dress is the girl wearing, What is she holding in her hands, What color is the bowl?
Which chicken, which chicken?” For a child, this is a serious mental task: recognizing actions in a picture is one of the manifestations of the ability to generalize. When choosing subject pictures, it is important to pay attention to the clarity of the lines and brightness of color. Realism and proportionality of the image, which will help children perceive objects . For example, such subject pictures as “Vegetables, fruits, domestic and wild animals, toys”
, etc.
Showing story pictures, playing dramatization games ( “Who’s Crying Here”
) the teacher pays attention to the state and mood of the characters (frightened, crying, burned his paw, consoles, regrets, etc., helps to understand what is good and what is bad. In the first junior group, plot pictures are used for classes:
“Game with a doll”
,
“Children play with blocks”
.
“Saving the ball”
, “Rolling balls”, etc. Exercises like
“Who does what”
, which are carried out using simple plot pictures, are effective in working with children of the third year of life. Having learned and described depicted action,
the child (on the instructions of the teacher)
reproduces it using real
objects ... For example, he shows how a boy waters flowers from a watering can, a girl cradles a doll, a mother washes clothes in a basin, a cook tries soup that is being cooked in a saucepan, a doctor treats a patient ( pictures are prepared in advance)
. Such exercises satisfy
the child in improvisation , form the ability to act with toys and objects in accordance with their purpose.
Toys, thanks to which the child develops fine motor skills, the child learns to distinguish the properties of objects , accelerates overall development, improves speech can be divided into three main groups:
In the first group we included toys, the way of working with which can be called “Part and whole”
during the initial acquaintance with
the object, we give children the opportunity to examine the object, hold it in their hands, feel it, act with it - these are fishing rods with magnets for catching fish, pyramids, inserts, puzzles, nesting dolls, sets for stringing, figured pyramids, toys consisting of several parts (snowmen, tumblers, vegetables, fruits, soft educational books, sets of cubes with pictures, beads for stringing, lacing, fasteners; Working with materials from the first group “Part and Whole”
, to a greater extent than others, develops the ability to analyze and synthesis. The simplest material from this series is
"Mosaic"
,
"Turrets"
parts of which can be connected and separated from each other. You need to start work with an even simpler action - dividing into parts: the child
is asked to disassemble the finished assembled turret . When he understands the principle of separating the parts , you can offer to build new turrets.
Children really like working with nesting dolls due to the surprise moment - in each new nesting doll there is a new one. Matryoshka dolls are also a composition of a whole from parts, like turrets and a mosaic. At the same time, mechanical control of the correctness of the task both facilitates and complicates the work for the baby: only two halves fit together, and they must be found. This search trains the child’s attentiveness.
Lacing - caterpillar - the baby looks for parts that match each other in color and shape, alternately connecting and separating them right before the child’s eyes. The desire to get a crawling caterpillar, which can be carried along with you on a string, is a good incentive: the child strings the parts onto the string several times in a row, but stringing is a complex process for a young child , requiring well-coordinated hand work and patience, which kids are capable of age characteristics do not differ.
Velcro games: dummies and a snowman, tumbler, also making a whole from parts, where you need to pick up the parts, connect them correctly, which also requires skill and patience in coordinating movements. Working with a snowman is similar to working with fruit. The difference is that the division into parts is done directly by hand. The goal of the work is to expand vocabulary, develop motor skills, memory, attention, and develop cognitive activity.
It is difficult to explain to a child why he must complete this or that task. If a child does not succeed in something, he quickly loses interest in the toy and switches to more successful activities .
And then various designer games and toys made by the hands of our teachers come to the aid of the teacher - this is the panel “Our Palms”
, for the development of tactile sensitivity, didactic soft fairy tale books, colored hedgehogs, beads, a caterpillar, a universal suit, in the manufacture of which various laces, buttons, patch pockets were used, which are attached using Velcro, snaps, buttons.
In working with children, I attach great importance to individual work with children, which we have always strived to make interesting and varied, to combine different types of activities : the development of fine and gross motor skills, the consolidation of colors, shapes, and work on sound pronunciation and speech.
The next task of the teacher is to develop cognitive activity in children. While working with children, the teacher must create conditions for familiarizing them with the world around them, experimenting and enriching them with impressions.
It is necessary to support children's natural curiosity and encourage any manifestation of the world around them. The cognitive activity of children should not be limited; the restriction should only apply to objects and actions that are dangerous to their life and health.
It is useful to organize joint observation of various natural phenomena with children. The purpose of these observations is to support and show children’s interest in the environment, to introduce them to the various properties of natural objects, to evoke surprise and the joy of discovering something new (birds singing, the sound of the wind, the rustling of leaves)
.
Observation of various natural phenomena should be combined with interesting games and activities, during which children become familiar with the various properties of objects of living and inanimate nature through their own experience, and gain a general understanding of their distinctive features. For example, when collecting a bouquet of fallen leaves, kids can compare them by size, shape, and color.
It is important to emphasize interest in adult activities . Children love to watch how the teacher feeds the birds, or takes care of the flowers, how the neighboring house is being built, etc. The teacher should comment on his actions, tell what people are doing, and answer the children’s questions. Books, albums, photographs must be in the public domain.
In order to develop curiosity, it is necessary to equip a special corner in the group for children’s experimentation: games with water, bulk plastic materials, interesting objects . By feeling objects of different textures and densities, the child learns the various properties and qualities of objects and materials: hardness, softness, warmth, cold, heaviness, etc. d. By disassembling and assembling toys and household items , the baby will learn how they work. By moving balls through the maze, trying to open a box with a complex lock, the baby solves real mental problems.
The next pedagogical task of this direction of child is the formation of purposefulness and independence in objective activities .
It is known that the activity of a child under 2 years of age is of a procedural nature: the baby receives pleasure from the process of action itself, their result does not yet have any independent meaning. By the age of 3, the child has a definite idea of the result of what he wants to do, and this idea begins to motivate his actions. activity acquires a purposeful character; he persistently strives to obtain the correct result, the idea of which is formed both on the basis of a given sample and his own plan. A small child needs to be helped to maintain a goal and be directed to achieve the desired result. These can be all kinds of puzzles, mosaics, cubes that make up pictures, construction sets, construction kits where you need to build various cars, toys, buildings. All this forms the child’s idea of the result of actions. For example, a child wants to lay out a mosaic pattern based on a picture. The teacher should look at the sample together with him, ask what parts will be needed, and where to put them. At the end of the work, it is very important to record the result of his activities . An adult's help should not dampen the child's independence and initiative. You should give your child the opportunity to do everything he can on his own.
There are no classes in the summer, but children play games on their own or with a teacher in the morning, evening, and while out for a walk. Classes in which color orientation is carried out are carried out only in natural lighting; with artificial lighting there is a distortion of color.
We lay out the didactic material on light tablecloths; they prevent objects from slipping and reduce the effect of tapping.
Buttons, zippers, snaps, laces - how many other different unruly items will have to be “shortened”
for kids until they learn to easily and freely cope with ordinary household chores. They were invented by adults. Adults also have to come up with ways to learn.
The greatest effect can be achieved when it is possible to combine the efforts of teachers in kindergarten and parents in the family. The successful implementation of this large and responsible work is impossible in isolation from the family, because parents are the first and main educators of their child from the moment of birth and for life. Therefore, we conducted a survey among parents about the pedagogical value of games and toys.
As a result of purposeful management of children's activities , communication with them, as well as special training, the mental development of children by the end of the third year of life reaches a level that ensures the child's practical orientation in the objects and phenomena of his immediate environment, understanding the speech of adults, and the ability to regulate his actions according to words in the process. verbal communication with adults. A child of this age is a thinking and speaking creature, showing a certain interest in the environment - all this creates new opportunities for the mental education of children in the years of preschool childhood
A child’s objective activity at an early age determines (“leads”) mental development, which is why it is called leading. It is in the course of subject activity that the most favorable conditions are created for the development of the most important abilities, skills and personal qualities of the child - speech, thinking, cognitive activity, focus and independence, therefore the creation of optimal conditions for the enrichment and development of various actions with objects is the first task of the educational process in early childhood. age.In this area of development, several directions can be distinguished, each of which involves setting special pedagogical tasks and using appropriate methods for their implementation. First of all, this is the development of culturally normalized, practical and instrumental actions. The teacher should help the child learn to properly use various household items (eating with a spoon and drinking from a cup, fastening buttons, combing his hair with a comb), toys specially created for mastering instrumental actions (spatula, hammer, etc.). This task is not limited to the development of individual hand movements, gross motor skills or specific skills. Mastering objective actions requires the child to overcome spontaneous, impulsive activity, and, consequently, to develop arbitrariness, perseverance and independence; the correct result obtained gives the child the opportunity to feel his skill, self-confidence, and feel involved in the affairs of adults. Thus, by teaching a child to eat, dress or wash properly, the teacher not only develops his self-care skills, but also develops his personality.
To solve the assigned tasks, the teacher must organize a developmental subject environment, establish joint activities with the child, and create conditions for his independent actions with objects.
The child masters many objective actions by becoming familiar with household objects in the process of eating, going to the toilet, changing clothes, and taking part in the everyday activities of adults. Usually, kids willingly help the teacher set the table, put away toys, and care for plants and animals in a living area or area.
The baby masters instrumental actions not only in everyday life, but also in the process of individual and joint games and activities with adults.
To familiarize children with the objects of the surrounding world and master object actions, the group should contain a variety of household objects, toys that imitate them, and toys specifically designed for the development of a variety of object actions. A rich and varied subject environment stimulates the baby to various actions, contributes to the enrichment of his sensory experience, and the development of thinking. Objects, toys and materials should be in the public domain, if possible, sorted into sets and placed so that children have a desire to act with them. It is necessary to ensure that the group has a sufficient number and variety of toys to provide children with a free choice of activities in accordance with their interests and preferences.
Objects and toys should contribute to the development of the senses and the formation of various skills (if possible, made of different materials (wood, plastic, metal, fabric, rubber, fur, etc.), have different sizes, textures, colors, sounds). So, in the group there should be objects for performing correlating (matryoshka dolls, pyramids), instrumental actions (scoops and molds, wind-up toys); toys for throwing, rolling (balls, cars, carts); objects and devices for the development of various movements of the hands and fingers (beads, spools, ropes, hooks), a variety of construction sets, toys imitating household items.
The teacher should support children's interest in toys and objects, providing the opportunity to independently explore them, and encourage children to play and do activities together. A child masters objective actions most effectively when they are included in a didactic or story-based game. For example, you can build a house for a hedgehog from cubes, build a train from modular furniture, and “bake” pies for dolls from sand.
Joint activities should not be forced on the child. An adult must respond to the child’s request for help, join in his play, and help him overcome difficulties. It can help the child correctly coordinate and distribute his actions. In this case, you should not perform actions for the baby; it is important that he learns to identify the necessary properties of objects himself, for example, select and connect parts of a pyramid or nesting doll in the right order. The teacher’s prompts should not be of a directive nature: “Take this ring” or “You need to take another ring.” It is important to give the child the opportunity to choose and freedom of action. (“Does this ring fit here? In my opinion, it’s too big.”) The child’s actions should be encouraged and praised.
The teacher must wisely combine joint activities with the child and the child’s independent activities. The child should be offered activities that correspond to his skills, identify the “zone of proximal development” and create conditions for mastering more complex actions. When organizing joint activities, first of all, it is necessary to interest the child, support his desire to act with the object, without forcing him to accurately reproduce the pattern of actions.
Young children do not yet know how to operate with objects together with their peers. Objects and actions with them completely absorb the baby’s interests; at the same time, he cannot focus on the actions of his partner, coordinate them with his own actions, or take into account other people’s desires. Therefore, there is no need to force children to collaborate with objects ahead of time - this can only cause unnecessary conflicts with peers. First, the child must himself examine the object that interests him, play with it as he sees fit. The child’s individual play with objects must not be interrupted; on the contrary, we need to support it in every possible way and create conditions for it.
When organizing group classes, you should remember that each child should have his own toy in his hands. It is necessary to gradually involve children in joint substantive activities, encouraging them to observe each other’s actions and join them. The teacher must distribute actions between children and help them take turns.
Special games and activities aimed at developing instrumental and practical actions are presented in the section of the manual by E. O. Smirnova, T. V. Ermolova, S. Yu. Meshcheryakova “Development of objective activity and cognitive abilities” (M.: Mozaika-Sintez, 2007). It presents games with a variety of objects - balls, rollers, nets, hammers, scoops, construction sets, fasteners, etc.
The next task of the teacher is to develop cognitive activity in children. While working with children, the teacher must create conditions for familiarizing them with the world around them, experimenting and enriching them with impressions.
It is necessary to support children's natural curiosity and encourage any manifestation of interest in the world around them. The cognitive activity of children should not be limited; the restriction should only apply to objects and actions that are dangerous to their life and health.
It is useful to organize joint observation of various natural phenomena with children. The purpose of these observations is to support or awaken children’s interest in the environment, to introduce them to the various properties of natural objects, to evoke surprise and the joy of discovering something new. Children should be attracted to changes in nature, pay attention to various natural sounds (birds singing, wind noise, rustling leaves) and smells (flowers, leaves). During a walk, you can introduce children to the names of plants, watch birds, insects, and tell them where they live and what they eat.
Observation of various natural phenomena should be combined with interesting games and activities, during which children become familiar with the various properties of objects of living and inanimate nature through their own experience, and gain a general understanding of their distinctive features. For example, when collecting bouquets of fallen leaves, kids can compare them by size, color, and shape.
It is important to maintain children's interest in adult activities. Children love to watch how the teacher feeds the fish or takes care of the flowers, how the neighboring house is being built, etc. The teacher should comment on his actions, tell what people are doing, and answer the children’s questions.
In order to familiarize children with the environment, books should be read to them, illustrations, filmstrips and educational videos about the natural and social world should be shown. Their contents
It should be interesting and understandable for kids. Books, albums, postcards, photographs must be in the public domain.
Children begin to show interest in the iconic side of human culture quite early. Looking at books, kids point with their fingers at letters and numbers and ask what they are. They may be interested in road signs, letters on a store sign, etc. You should support children's curiosity, answer their questions, organize games with magnetic alphabet, cubes with letters and numbers. However, this does not mean that you need to specifically teach children to read and write and practice mathematics with them. It is enough to create an appropriate environment (place stands with magnetic alphabet, cards with letters, numbers, children's names, etc.) and maintain the interest of the kids.
One of the important areas of a teacher’s work in developing children’s cognitive activity is organizing children’s experimentation. In the process of free research activity, the child receives new, sometimes unexpected information, establishes practical connections between his own actions and the phenomena of the surrounding world, and makes some kind of discoveries. Independent experimentation gives the child the opportunity to try out different methods of action, while overcoming the fear of making mistakes and the constraint of thinking with ready-made action patterns.
In order to develop curiosity and stimulate children's exploratory behavior, it is necessary to create appropriate conditions. The group should be equipped with a special “corner” for children’s experimentation: games with water, bulk, plastic materials, objects interesting for research and observation. By crumpling plasticine, tearing paper, feeling objects of different textures and densities, the child learns the various properties and qualities of objects and materials: hardness, softness, warmth, cold, heaviness, etc. By disassembling and assembling toys and household items, the baby learns how they work. By moving balls through the maze, trying to open a box with a complex lock, the baby solves real mental problems.
The teacher’s task is to support children’s cognitive activity and encourage them to experiment independently. An effective way to stimulate independent research activity is to present the child with special “mysterious” objects that should have the following properties.
Firstly, they must be new and uncertain in form and purpose, unfamiliar to the child. A high degree of uncertainty requires a wide variety of cognitive activities
child. In some cases, children’s research activities may not be related to solving a practical problem, but may be of a “disinterested” nature (examine an unfamiliar object, touch it, taste it). In other cases, it may be aimed at solving a specific task (for example, opening a box to get a toy hidden in it).
Secondly, such subjects must be quite complex for the child. The more complex and mysterious the toy is, the more varied parts it contains, the more likely it is that it will provoke various exploratory actions. At the same time, to develop a child’s research activity, an optimal level of complexity of the subject is necessary. If a subject is too simple or too complex, interest in it may quickly fade. The optimal level of complexity is one that requires certain efforts leading to the achievement of an effect that is understandable to the child.
“Mysterious” objects are special educational toys (for example, music boxes, a kaleidoscope, toys with various triggers, children’s binoculars, a magnifying glass). The teacher can make a “toy with a secret” himself: put a small toy in a transparent box (for perfume, souvenirs) or in a case for glasses. Children are especially interested in household appliances, which offer rich opportunities for various manipulations (watch, voice recorder, radio, camera, telephone, etc.).
A child’s research interest can be awakened by demonstrating bright, unusual effects, organizing experiments with a mirror, a magnet, an electric flashlight (let sunbeams appear, apply a magnet to toys made of various materials, illuminate various objects with a flashlight, etc.).
Playing with water, paints, sand, and paper opens up a huge scope for children’s experimentation. These activities are not only extremely exciting for kids, but also very useful for establishing physical laws, mastering ideas about volume, shape, changes in substances and learning the properties and capabilities of a particular material. Kids enjoy pouring water from one vessel to another, checking whether toys sink or float, and launching boats. The teacher can help children diversify their games with water: tint it with food coloring, make foam, show how to blow soap bubbles. Children will be interested in kneading the dough (from flour, salt and water) and making “pies” from it, various figures, rolling out sausages, making pretzels, etc. You can invite the kids to pour beans and peas from a cup into a bowl, and pour cereal into a cup with a spoon. In the process of these activities, the child gains ideas about such concepts as “full”, “empty”, “many”, “little”, etc.
Games with visual materials are useful for developing children's cognitive activity. These games may not have visual purposes, but are purely exploratory in nature. Kids mix paints with interest, make strokes on paper with their fingers, a brush, or stamps, or scribble with a pencil, felt-tip pen, or chalk. At the same time, children not only get acquainted with the properties of various substances and materials, but also receive a quick visible effect from their own transformative actions, which causes them special joy.
Rich opportunities for children's cognitive development include musical toys (bells, tambourines, drums, metallophones, etc.) and a variety of sounding objects (rattles, wooden spoons, rustling paper). Experimenting with sound objects helps to develop children's interest in the world of sounds, the ability to differentiate them, and the development of fine motor skills of the hands and articulatory apparatus.
The child’s research interest should be encouraged, together with him he should be surprised and rejoice at his discoveries. It is imperative to answer all the child’s questions, trying to formulate answers in an accessible form, and ask the child about what he is doing, what he did. You should not scold your child if, out of curiosity, he disassembles or accidentally breaks a toy, spills water, makes a mess, or gets dirty.
If the child does not show research interest or his actions with the object are limited to simple manipulations, the teacher should stimulate his cognitive activity with questions, tips, suggestions, for example: “Try to open the box, what if there is something in it?” or: “Let’s throw a pebble into a bowl of water. Do you think he will sink or swim? What about this sponge?
Special games and activities aimed at developing cognitive activity in children are described in the section of the manual by E.O. Smirnova, T.V. Ermolova, S. Yu. Meshcheryakova “Development of objective activity and cognitive abilities” (M: Mozaika-Sintez, 2007). It presents activity games with “mysterious” objects and various materials - water, paints, sand, paper.
In the course of various object-practical and instrumental actions, as well as in the process of observation and experimentation, the development of all aspects of the child’s psyche is carried out, including mental development. However, in pedagogy, didactic techniques and toys have been developed that are specifically aimed at developing the child’s perception, attention, thinking and memory.
Many children's toys are self-educational, or autodidactic. They themselves “tell” the child what kind of actions need to be performed in order to achieve this or that goal. These are various composite toys that require matching the sizes, shapes or colors of different parts (curly pyramids, nesting dolls, inserts, mosaics, cut-out pictures). So, in order to fold a pyramid, you need to take into account the ratio of the rings in size. In the case of a figured pyramid, you need to correlate the component parts according to shape in order to assemble a specific object (clown, mushroom, dog). When assembling a nesting doll, you need to select halves of the same size and perform actions in a certain order - first assemble the smallest one, and then put it into the larger one, etc. When putting together a picture from parts, you should select the parts so that you get a complete image of the object.
The youngest children in these cases act by trial and error. With the help of external indicative actions, the child sooner or later gets the desired result. This method of solving a practical problem is characteristic of visual and effective thinking. But already at an early age, children develop visual-figurative thinking, which allows them to perform correlative actions in the mind and achieve the correct result without preliminary tests.
Games with cubes, geometric planar and three-dimensional shapes, lotto, and dominoes also contribute to the mental development of children.
Special games and activities that promote the mental development of children are described in the manual “Development of Subject Activities and Cognitive Abilities” (M: Mozaika-Sintez, 2007). It contains educational games with inserts, cubes, pyramids, nesting dolls, and pictures.
The next pedagogical task of this direction of child development is the formation of focus and independence in objective activities.
It is known that the activities of a child under 2 years of age are procedural in nature: the baby receives pleasure from the process of action itself, their result does not yet have any independent meaning. By the age of 3, a child has a definite idea of the outcome of what he wants to do, and this idea begins to motivate his actions. The child’s activity acquires a purposeful character; he persistently strives to obtain the correct result, the idea of which is formed both on the basis of a given sample (adult’s instructions, pictures, etc.) and his own plan. The child no longer acts just like that, but with the goal of obtaining a certain result (“I want to build a garage”).
Focus on results, perseverance and independence in achieving goals are the most important characteristics not only of a child’s activities, but also of his personality as a whole.
To develop these valuable qualities, the help of an adult is necessary. A small child needs to be helped to “hold” the goal, to direct him to achieve the desired result. To do this, you can use games with constructors and toys that involve obtaining a certain result. These can be figured pyramids from which you need to assemble a certain object (a soldier’s car, a dog, etc.), all kinds of mosaics or puzzles from which pictures and cubes are made. Such types of children's activities as modeling, designing from natural and waste materials, and making appliqués also contribute to the child’s formation of an idea of the result of actions.
This idea is not formed immediately and is fully accessible to children over three years of age, but in its elementary forms it is formed in the third year of life. In order to help a child act purposefully, it is necessary to highlight in his mind the idea of the final result of the action. For example, a child wants to lay out a mosaic pattern based on a picture. The teacher should look at the sample together with him, ask what parts will be needed, and where they should be put. If a child begins to sculpt something from plasticine, you need to ask what he wants to sculpt. As the work progresses, you should encourage the child’s correct actions, draw his attention to mistakes, help correct them, and encourage him to compare the result with a model or plan. At the end of the work, it is very important to praise the child and record the result of his work.
It should be borne in mind that at an early age, the baby’s plans are still very poorly supported by his real practical skills. He often strives for goals that he does not yet know how to realize, and failure causes a strong affective reaction. Without the help of an adult, it is difficult for a child to correctly coordinate and distribute his actions, make them goal-oriented, and determine their suitability for a specific task. The teacher must suggest to the child the necessary methods of action, responding to his requests or offering him help on his own initiative. At the same time, the help of an adult should not dampen the child’s initiative and independence. The child should be given the opportunity to do everything he can on his own.
Games and activities that contribute to the development of children's focus and independence in objective activities are presented in the manual by E.O. Smirnova, TV. Ermolova, S.Yu. Meshcheryakova “Development of objective activity and cognitive abilities” (M: Mozaika-Sintez, 2007).
The emergence of other types of activities
In the third year of life, that is, towards the end of early childhood, the child begins to become interested in playing, drawing, modeling and designing. In other words, he begins to develop new directions of knowledge of the world around him. But at the same time, subject development activities continue to be of no small importance.
At the end of early childhood, children enjoy role-playing games. By doing this, they strive to satisfy a social need, expressed in the desire to live together with adults, while playing their roles. In this case, substantive actions fade into the background.
The prerequisites for the beginning of role-playing games arise throughout early childhood. Moreover, they can be detected in the objective activity itself. These are manipulations with toys that are offered by adults, and then independently reproduced by the baby. Such actions were already called games. However, in such a situation this name can only be applied conditionally.
Initial games involve performing 2-3 actions. For example, feeding a doll and putting it to sleep. But later, when the child increasingly transfers the ways adults influence various objects in the world around him, he begins to play games with more complex manipulations.
